Posted on 12/09/24
| News Source: Times of Israel
In his press conference, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says that ever since the October 7, 2023, Hamas attacks, Israel has been working in a “systematic, measured and organized fashion” to dismantle the Iranian axis.
In Gaza, says Netanyahu, Israel is now acting “to bring down the remains of Hamas’s military capabilities, and all of Hamas’s governing capabilities” and to bring back all the hostages.
Turning to Lebanon, Netanyahu stresses that Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah was the “axis of the axis. Strike him, and you’ll strike the axis severely.”
Nasrallah linked Hezbollah, Syria and Iran, he says.
“The elimination of Nasrallah was a turning point in the collapse of the axis,” he argues, adding that “Nasrallah is no longer with us, and the axis is not what it was.” Israel is “taking it apart step by step.”
“Iran set up a terror route from the Persian Gulf to the Mediterranean Sea, from Iran to Iraq, Iraq to Syria, Syria to Lebanon. In the south they armed Hamas. Further to the south, the Houthis, who we’ve also hit hard,” he says.
“The axis still hasn’t disappeared,” he continues, “but as I promised, we are transforming the face of the Middle East.”
“The State of Israel is establishing its status as a focus of power in our region, as it has not been for decades,” he says.
“Whoever cooperates with us,” he says, “reaps great benefit. Whoever attacks us, loses greatly.”
Israel, he says, wants to see a different Syria, for the benefit of Israel and for Syrians.
“We proved that at the start of the civil war, when we built a field hospital at the border — and treated thousands of injured Syrian [civilians],” he recalls. “Hundreds of Syrian children were born in Israel.”
“Even today, we [are] reaching out a hand to whoever wants to live with us in peace, and we will cut off the hand or whoever tries to hurt us.”
He notes that he instructed the IDF to take over the buffer zone “between us and Syria” and the access points, “including what is called the Syrian Hermon.”